Yes and no. Yes unemployment, like real estate does have many local factors not the least of which include governmental regulation and taxation that can make a business viable. However unemployment is also national, affected by the same factors on a macro scale including less quantifiable concepts such as “confidence” that help individuals and businesses decide what to do with their money – invest, save, pay off debt etc. It’s a twisted web with many influences.

Unemployment is not a national problem. It is a regional one. The jobs troubles have been in regions hardest hit by the collapse in real estate prices and layoffs in the older industrial states. That was the trend during the depth of the recession. Nothing has changed, based on new Gallup data. "Gallup's Job Creation Index shows that Washington, D.C., as well as energy- and commodity-producing states, continue to dominate the 10 best job markets … Read More

What we have now is a system of legalized bribery. Wealthy special interests and their lobbyists donate to congressional campaigns with the knowledge that the congressmen who take the money will vote for whatever they are told to. And they will even let the lobbyists write the laws.

Congressmen really don’t have much of a choice because our campaign finance system. If the other candidate is getting that bribery money, he is forced to do whatever it takes to get that money too, or he will lose the election. Money buys elections in America, more often than not.

This is explained very clearly in a video I just watched, called “The Best Government Money Can Buy”.

The solution is public campaign finance. Yes, taxpayers would pay for campaigns, so that even the little guy has a chance to get elected if his ideas are good. Here’s one proposal that I think would do that:

Like this:

This financing technique has been around forever & is not a new idea. It’s only a new idea if you consider banks & mortgage companies don’t like it because they don’t make any money on it. Don’t expect your local banker to say hey, sorry we won’t approve you for a loan why don’t you try seller financing….Ha, ha, ha…. never happen.

The weak underbelly of seller financing lies in the lack of regulation hence the potential for unscrupulous individuals to take advantage of sellers. Since people have had stuff that someone else wanted but couldn’t afford outright they have said how about you pay me this much every month until you pay me this amount then it will be completely yours. Heck, this is how banks began and they don’t like encroachment on their business – why would anyone want competition making their job harder and profit lower?

There are pitfalls to seller financing, they key is to know what you’re getting into, get complete disclosure, sign everything, keep copies and if you don’t understand it get some help from an attorney who understands real estate and contracts. Asking a Banker, Realtor, Broker, etc. with a vested interest doesn’t serve your best interests & you can pretty much predict their reply.

Be safe, live life fully and have fun! Life it too short to do it any other way.

Do you want to sell your house but have figured out that buyers are as scarce as snowflakes in the Arizona desert? If you’ve owned your home for a long while and have equity in it, your best bet might be to offer seller financing.

Seller financing essentially means that you will act as the bank when the bank won’t. It’s an idea whose time has come because of tighter lending qualifications. According to the National Association of Realtors, there’s already been an uptick in the number of homeowners who carry loans for their buyers.

Like this:

Unfortunately when we make big money through real estate investing it seems that not everyone is happy. This was highlighted in the news this week as one Michigan county pushes to change state laws which have been enabling real estate investing companies to pick up homes for as little $100 a piece. Apparently in Genesee County, Michigan real estate investing companies have been scooping these tax foreclosures at auction and quickly reselling them … Read More

Like this:

If you take this away especially in light of today’s tight credit market things will only get worse – no loans, no new homeowners, no confidence, no economic recovery.

These programs did what they were meant to do, the problem stems from the savvy investment bankers who found the loopholes to exploit the system and created the insatiable demand fueling the crazy housing price increases through the early 2000’s. It all goes back to the very simple concept: follow the money.

These programs should live on albeit with some revised regulatory and ENFORCEMENT mechanisms put in place. Problem is probably no one in Washington has the will to do what needs to be done. Regulation with teeth and, dare I say it, government agencies empowered to enforce the laws and protect the economy…

Like this:

Well hello. The comments by Howard Schultz are not news, at least not to anyone with a functioning brain. So politicians seem to only care about re-election and the driving force behind that is fund raising (for their re-election campaigns)…who’d have thunk that? However you do have to credit him for doing something about it. This is a step in the right direction. Go to Starbucks and grab a tall latte today to support Mr. Schultz’s activism for the public good. To take it one further drop your political contribution in the tip jar – it will do far more good for the economy in a barista’s hands than a politicians.

By the way, did you know, at least I understand this from a CNBC profile report, that Starbucks employees get medical insurance benefits, pretty cool huh. And they’re not even union. Another reason to support Howard and Starbuck’s with your caffeine addiction.

Starbucks CEO to DC: You’ve been cut off

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is fed up with Washington.

And he is doing something about it.

Spurred by what he describes as a failure of leadership on the part of lawmakers, Schultz is mounting a one-man bull rush against a political culture that has “chosen to put partisan and ideological purity over the well being of the people.”

What does that mean? No more political donations — not for anybody.

And he’s recruiting other CEOs to join him.

“I am asking that all of us forgo political contributions until the Congress and the President return to Washington and deliver a fiscally, disciplined long term debt and deficit plan to the American people,” Schultz wrote in a letter that was passed on to members of the NYSE and Nasdaq.

The goal is to hit lawmakers right where it hurts: the pocketbook.

“All it seems people are interested in is re-election,” Schultz told CNNMoney on Tuesday. “And that re-election — the lifeblood of it is fundraising.”